While people have long sought methods to acquire and preserve their ideal form, medical technology has advanced to present new solutions. The deep plane approach to facial lifting is another innovation in keeping a person’s face looking their youngest. The rest of this article will cover what this specific technique is, how it works, the risks, how it compares to traditional facelifts and the procedure’s recovery time.
What is It?
A deep plane facelift is a procedure that manipulates the muscle and fat between the SMAS-platysma complex (the muscle and fascia) and the deeper muscles that govern the face’s ability to emote, rather than just pulling and excising the skin.
This technique releases four ligaments within the deep plane layer of the face and neck to ease tension in movement. A lack of tension means there will be no tightness. The zygomatic ones connect to the cheeks. It also improves creases between the nose and corners of the mouth and counteracts hollowing from below the lower eyelid. Lastly, the masseteric and mandibular ligaments, which tether the jowls, are lifted.
How Does It Work, And Are There Any Complications?
This technique is inspired by releasing the cervical retaining ligaments that connect the platysma muscle to the neck. The plastic surgeon can significantly redrape the platysma by extending the deep plane into the neck. Further, this sort of work around the neck and jawline tends to have an enduring, natural look that significantly improves the definition of the jawline.
This sort of facelift procedure lifts the face in a more vertical direction, creating a smooth, natural appearance with restored cheeks and elevated corners of the mouth. While rare (occurring in less than 1% of all patients), facial nerve damage is the most common complication during this procedure.
Deep Plane vs. SMAS
Many facelift patients worry about the procedure being noticeable or their skill appearing pulled. This concern is precisely due to issues with the SMAS plication lift, where the skin is simply raised by suturing the SMAS-Platysma complex upward. SMAS stands for Superficial Musculo-Aponeurotic System and is a muscle area between the lower cheeks and jowls; the platysma is the muscle that hangs from the neck to the face’s lower third. While pulling this layer works better than just lifting the skin; separating the skin from its muscles creates a tightness in the skin.
Since this surgery is isolated to the face’s lower third and jawline, surgeons often raise the cheeks by taking fat from the body and injecting it into the cheeks. The deep plane technique differs from this approach by repositioning the skin under the slack muscles and fat without damaging the skin. A traditional SMAS facelift will tighten the face laterally or toward the ears, often resulting in a stretched face, flattened cheeks, and a pulled look at the corners of the eyes and mouth.
Recovery Time
Recovering from a deep plane treatment often involves bruising and swelling around the tweaked areas for a few days, fading gradually in their own time. Since this technique is done within the natural skin layer of the face, any post-procedure bruising and pain is minimal. Because it does not cut into blood vessels sandwiched between the skin and muscle, deep plane surgery preserves more of the skin’s natural blood supply and allows for a swifter recovery time.
The most common outside treatments for pain or discomfort are pain medications and cold compresses for swelling. Elevation of the head and plenty of rest are recommended during recovery. For traditional SMAS facelifts, patients have a recovery time of roughly a month. SMAS-type facelifts lift under the skin and disrupt blood vessels, so bruising is greater than with a deep plane procedure.
The Final Word
You should now have a robust idea of how the deep plane technique is superior to traditional facelifts. We have covered how deep-plane lifts do what they do, why they are recommended over SMAS, and what post-procedure recovery resembles,
